Leaked Letter Points To News Corp. Cover Up

There's a new development in the News Corp. phone hacking and it's very damning of News Corp.'s higher management. A leaked four-year old letter from Clive Goodman, a reporter newly out of jail after being convicted of phone hacking, alleges that hacking was done by others and "widely discussed" at editorial meetings. The Guardian notes, "The letters from Goodman and from the London law firm Harbottle & Lewis are among a cache of paperwork published by the Commons culture, media and sport select committee. One committee member, the Labour MP Tom Watson, said... 'Clive Goodman's letter is the most significant piece of evidence that has been revealed so far. It completely removes News International's defence. This is one of the largest cover-ups I have seen in my lifetime.'"

It's likely that both James and Rupert Murdoch will be called back to Parliament to explain, among other statements now called into question, testimony that Goodman was paid 60,000 pounds and paperwork showing he was paid twice that amount.

Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch and their former editor Andy Coulson (who went on to become an advisor to Prime Minister David Cameron and had claimed to know nothing about the phone hacking) all face embarrassing new allegations of dishonesty and cover-up after the publication of an explosive letter written by the News of the World's disgraced royal correspondent, Clive Goodman.

In the letter, which was written four years ago but published only on Tuesday, Goodman claims that phone hacking was "widely discussed" at editorial meetings at the paper until Coulson himself banned further references to it; that Coulson offered to let him keep his job if he agreed not to implicate the paper in hacking when he came to court; and that his own hacking was carried out with "the full knowledge and support" of other senior journalists, whom he named.

...Goodman's claims also raise serious questions about Rupert Murdoch's close friend and adviser, Les Hinton (until recently, publisher of the Wall Street Journal), who was sent a copy of the letter but failed to pass it to police and who then led a cast of senior Murdoch personnel in telling parliament that they believed Coulson knew nothing about the interception of the voicemail of public figures and that Goodman was the only journalist involved.